You do not need a registered company to text customers legally in the US. The Sole Proprietor brand type exists precisely for individuals (freelancers, side businesses, independent practitioners) who operate without an EIN. It is cheap and achievable, but it comes with hard limits you should know before choosing it.
Who qualifies
- You are an individual operating a business under your own name (or a DBA)
- You do not have an EIN. This is a hard rule: if your business has an EIN, TCR requires you to register as a Standard-family brand even if you call yourself a sole proprietor for taxes
- Your volume is genuinely low, and the limits below must actually fit your use
What you get, and the hard limits
| Campaigns per brand | 1 (exactly one, ever, per Sole Proprietor brand) |
| Phone numbers | 1: a single 10DLC number in the campaign |
| Daily volume | Low, on the order of 1,000 message segments/day to T-Mobile, similar constraint elsewhere |
| Use case | The dedicated Sole Proprietor use case (mixed light content) |
| Secondary vetting | Not available |
If any of those constraints pinch (you need two numbers, or 5,000 messages a day), get an EIN (free, ~15 minutes on the IRS website) and register Low Volume Standard or Standard instead.
What registration asks for
- Your legal first and last name, and business/DBA name if you use one
- A physical US or Canadian address (PO boxes and private mailboxes are rejected)
- The last four digits of your SSN (US) or SIN (Canada) for identity verification
- An email address and, critically, a mobile phone number that can receive SMS
The OTP verification step
Sole Proprietor registration includes a TCR-mandated one-time-passcode flow: the mobile number you provided receives an SMS with a PIN, and you must complete verification within a limited window (about 24 hours). Two practical warnings:
- The OTP goes to your personal mobile, not the Twilio number you will send from. Use a number you actually carry.
- Missed the window? The registration stalls; you will need to re-trigger verification. Watch for the SMS right after submitting.
Will your website pass carrier review?
Paste your URL into our free AI scanner and get an instant PASS / WARN / FAIL compliance report. No signup needed.
Run a free compliance scanCosts
Roughly $4 one-time brand registration, ~$15 one-time campaign vetting, and about $2/month for the campaign, which makes it the cheapest entry to registered texting. Per-message carrier surcharges apply like any 10DLC traffic. Full fee tables in our cost guide.
Compliance still applies in full
Sole Proprietor status shrinks the paperwork, not the rules. You still need express consent before texting anyone, STOP/HELP handling, and, if you have a website where you collect numbers, a privacy policy that covers SMS data. Reviewers check sole prop campaigns too.
Frequently asked questions
Can I register as a Sole Proprietor if I have an LLC?
No. An LLC has (or should have) an EIN, and TCR requires EIN holders to register as Standard-family brands. Sole Proprietor is strictly for individuals without an EIN.
Can I add a second phone number later?
Not on a Sole Proprietor campaign. One number is a hard limit, and adding more numbers produces failures like Twilio error 30034. To grow past one number, obtain an EIN and re-register as a Standard-family brand.
How long does Sole Proprietor registration take?
Brand + OTP verification typically completes the same day if you answer the PIN promptly. Campaign review then takes days to a few weeks, like any 10DLC campaign.